Psych! Only Not Like That
by equinewolf
Summary: What if Shawn didn't have to pretend he was psychic? What if he had to pretend he wasn't? AU
1. Chapter 1

_**Here's the first chapter of my new multi-chapter AU Psych fanfiction. Hopefully it's not all that bad, because I really like the idea for it. Anyway, if you like it, please review. ^^ Also, the first chapter and probably the second aswell, will be mostly based around the pilot episode, but then after it won't really be based off specific episodes.**_

* * *

><p>"So, how are you learning of confidential evidence in all those murder cases Mr. Spencer?" The blonde detective asked, clearly not in the mood to deal with someone who was so obviously not a professional investigator.<p>

It was surprising, really, how she was even an investigator herself, being a woman in the early 1900's in Santa Barbara. Shawn Spencer frowned. He was sitting across from two detectives at a table in the law enforcement station that was about a ten minute walk from where he lived. He had come down to the station to give some tips on one of their murder cases. Unlucky for him though, they had started getting suspicious with all the help he'd been giving them lately. He had hoped it wouldn't have had come to this. All he had been trying to do was help catch some criminals, although, it was actually pretty entertaining to be constantly showing up the professionals.

The other detective, a dark haired man looked even less enthused than the woman. He also looked like he'd been sucking on something sour. Shawn looked between the two.

"Can't you just accept my helpful assistance without questioning my non-existent ulterior motives?" He asked, in a falsely sweet tone. He was hopeful though, because if they found out the truth, he'd probably end up somewhere quite unpleasant, and quite unnecessary.

"I wouldn't exactly call it 'helpful.'" The man said, leaning forward slightly.

"The only explanation I can think of is that you, Mr. Spencer are the serial murderer we've been looking for this whole time." When the man mentioned this, the woman coughed, looking at him with a sideways glance, her eyes wide. They seemed to have a silent argument between themselves, as Shawn sat there, only mildly paying attention. Why couldn't they just be grateful for the fact that even though _they_ couldn't do their job, someone else was there to help? He wasn't even asking for credit or recognition, in fact, he really didn't want either.

The man detective cleared his throat,

"Well, either you're the killer or-" He cut off, looking warily at his partner again. She sent him a small glare, and he turned back to Shawn.

"Either that or you're…psychic." He didn't seem too sold on the idea. Shawn frowned again, but was careful not to panic.

"It just seems that if you're not the killer, the only other option would be psychic." The woman added, glancing nervously over at the man. Shawn almost laughed. What kind of detective actually belives in psychics, he wondered. Apparently the woman did, although it seemed the man was much more skeptic, seeing as how he was reluctent to even mention it.

"Well, I can assure you, detectives that I am no killer, and I'm definitely no psychic." Both of them sent Shawn glares, as he was being particularly uncooperative, at least in their perspectives.

"Well then, you tell us, Mr. Spencer, how are you finding these things out?" The blonde asked, her tone frustrated. Shawn shrugged a bit,

"Guess I'm just…observant?" _His_ tone was becoming something that sounded as if he were mocking them, it was a challenge. He was challenging them to find proof.

The two detectives were angry, but they had no concrete evidence or proof or anything, and they ended up having to release Spencer. He was able to walk right out of the building, and as he left, he noticed that the dark haired detective leaned over and kissed the blonde when they thought no one was looking. At that Shawn smirked, as that was likely not very proper for two people who work together to also _be_ together. It felt somewhat relieving to have something that he could use as blackmail if need be.

He smiled at his victory back there, but he was thankful that his secret was still just that. A secret. Only himself, and his best friend, Burton Guster, -or Gus as he was often called-would ever know the truth. He'd never even told his father, with whom he'd lived for the entirety of his childhood after his parents had split. That had been a pretty scandalous thing when it had happened, but it had long since been forgotten.

It might have made growing up a bit easier if he_ had_ told his father, but he had his reasons. First of all, his father wasn't exactly…the most accepting. Or supportive for that matter, Shawn hadn't even seen him for a few years now. Second of all, his dad was religious, only a tiny bit religious mind you, but religious all the same, and Shawn found that religious people often had issues with his…certain quality.

Shawn arrived home fairly quickly. He was in a good mood now that that whole ordeal was out of the way, and he and Gus later went out to a tavern for a few drinks. He told Gus of that day's happenings. It mostly consisted of Gus warning Shawn to be more careful. Shawn just ignored him for the most part. Yeah, it would be unfortunate if he got put in some nut house,-asylum Gus had called it, Shawn wasn't really one for fancy terms-but from what Shawn could tell, the detectives around there were all way too incompetent to find proof. Besides, with his ability, there wasn't much, or any proof to be found really. It would only ever be speculation.

Shawn was on his second drink when his vision went cloudy. He was used to it happening by now, so he didn't panic, although he did grimace. He wasn't exactly a fan of this whole process. His body started to twitch quite a lot, and Gus seemed awfully concerned for someone who had seen it happen many times before. The bartender asked if everything was alright. Gus said yes to avoid unwanted attention.

Images flashed in front of Shawn's eyes, a body, no, two bodies, a dog, a very nice mansion, a large painting of a smiling family-including the dog from a few images ago-whose faces seemed slightly familiar. Even though the images were gone in an instant, at that moment, they had seemed so real, so tangible. They seemed as if they were right in front of Shawn's face. He shook his head, and was back to reality. Gus stared at him, worry etched on his face.

"Gus, you really _should_ be used to this by now," Shawn said with a raise of his eyebrows as he straightened himself in his seat and looked around. Thankfully no one was staring at him like he was crazy, which was what often happened when he had an episode in public.

"What did you see?" Gus asked, _his_ eyebrows scrunched up with curiosity.

"I'm not all too sure, but there were bodies. Two of them. And a fair amount of blood." Gus took it all in, looking fairly ill. He was definitely not keen on the thought of blood, especially large quantities of blood. On dead people, which he also wasn't a big fan of.

The next day, word went out that Camden McCallum was missing, and had been for around a month. Kidnapping was suspected. It all made sense, well most of it…some of it? Well, the mansion bit and the painting of the McCallum family bit made sense. The McCallums were one of the richest families around, and Camden was the sole heir to the family's fortune.

That's motive enough for murder, thought Shawn, who kind of figured it was murder from the blood splatter, and the body…bodies, wait bodies? Huh, double murder then. No. You can't get involved, he told himself, but then he wondered when Gus had taken over his mind.

Turns out that the head of the law enforcement department near Shawn's living space came by a few days later, and to Shawn's shock, asked him to help them out with solving this kidnapping, since he was seemingly the only person who had had any luck solving anything in the past few months. She called it 'unlucky,' but Shawn thought incompetent detectives such as blondie and lemon face were the cause.

He brushed away the Gus-ish thoughts that were telling him that it would be dangerous to work for them, and accepted, even though he admitted that it was probably a bad idea. Shawn had never really been a good rule-follower, nor had he ever been too concerned with safety. He supposed that was why it was probably a good thing Gus was a stickler for rules, and could sometimes be a compulsive worrier since Gus was the one who always ended up helping him out of trouble.

The chief, who was also surprisingly a female, mentioned that he would be working alongside the dark haired, grumpy detective, whose name turned out to be Carlton Lassiter. She also mentioned that Lassiter was pretty much her best detective in the whole enforcement. Shawn barely managed to suppress a snort. If Lassiter was the best out there, then Shawn was intrigued as to how bad the worst could possibly be. He was tempted to tell the chief about Lassiter's 'special relations' with his partner, just to get back at him for being less than understanding about Shawn's wanting to help out, but then he figured that being hired by Lassiter's boss to do Lassiter's job would be payback enough, for now.

The chief left, and Shawn went to see Gus, who was at his job at a factory, which made…something, Shawn wasn't really sure, maybe some sort of medical thing? Gus barely looked up when Shawn came up to him.

"Gus, you're going to want to hear this." Gus merely raised his eyes as he worked, he'd gotten used to Shawn's interruptive tendencies a long time ago. Shawn took the silence as a sign to keep talking.

"I got us the only job we will ever need. We even get paid!" Shawn exclaimed, starting to bounce on his toes, clearly excited. Gus sighed,

"Shawn, I have a job. I _already_ get paid."

"Yeah, well we'll get paid _more_, and it's going to be _fun_." Shawn replied, shooting Gus his 'just go with it' face. Gus finally turned to face Shawn.

"Alright, fine. What is it?"

"We're going to be crime solving consultants."

After a long argument about how stupid and dangerous it was going to be, Shawn finally convinced Gus that it would be a worth-while adventure. That's how it usually went. Shawn would get an idea, get worked up about it, and eventually Gus would give in, and then they would set off on whatever crazy experiment or project Shawn had set up for them.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Here's the second chapter! Looks like there will be one more chapter centered around the pilot episode, then it will continue on from there. Thanks for reading! ^^**_

* * *

><p>The first day working with the professionals went reasonably well in Shawn's opinion, Gus' opinion, not so much. Gus seemed to be the only one bothered by the looks that the detectives gave them, as if they were trying to figure out how exactly they were figuring stuff out.<p>

They met the detectives at the McCallum house. Shawn and Gus had never seen such a nice place. Gus had always dreamt about living a rich lifestyle like that, but there was no way it could ever happen, him being a member of a minority group.

Shawn was different in that respect. He thought of a fancy house, riches, and a close knit family as anchors that would force him to stay in one place his whole life. He liked to think of himself as free, able to go and do whatever he pleased. That was one of the major reasons that he no longer had contact with his father. He had left home when he was seventeen. He just up and took off one night, leaving but a note telling his father goodbye. He had wanted to see the world, travel around the country, and he did.

He had missed Gus for sure, and yeah, he missed his father sometimes too, but he would never admit it, not even to himself. Anyway, after a year or so, he ended up back in Santa Barbara, only to find that his father had moved away, to the big city. San Francisco.

Gus had been furious at him for leaving, but with time, eventually forgave him, and they went back to being the best friends they'd always been, and hopefully always would.

At the mansion, they met the parents of the victim, and his sister Katarina. Gus found it slightly inappropriate that instead of questioning her, Shawn was shamelessly flirting.

He shot a glare to the back of Shawn's head, as Shawn took hold of one of Katarina's hands. Yes, Gus would admit that she was quite pretty and interesting and whatnot, but hello, when the heir for an entire estate goesmissing, and was either already dead, or would be soon, siblings automatically had a motive.

"Everything's going to be okay." Shawn said, even though his vision from before clearly showed otherwise.

"Thank you for saying that. I have the same feeling. What makes you think so?" She asked, eying him inquisitively.

I'm a psychic, he thought, but obviously he couldn't say it out loud. She would think him to be crazy.

"Just a feeling I have." He replied, shrugging it off. Then heand Gus left to go find some more information.

They found out that the Camden's dog was also missing. Also before leaving, Shawn studied the family painting for a moment. The one who was supposedly Camden was smiling, looking as if he would never face a cruel death such as murder.

He looked exactly like the body on the floor from Shawn's vision, but who was the other body?

It actually didn't take too long before they found out. Shawn and Gus were paging through an old photo album, when a photo caught Shawn's observant eye.

"That's him," He said, nudging Gus.

"Who? The killer?"

"No, the other dead person from my vision," Shawn said, lowering his voice at the mention of his vision. He looked closer at the photo. Init was Camden and three or four other people, but one of them, the one standing right next to Camden, was the one Shawn recognized.  
>They asked the family about him.<p>

"That's Malcolm Orso. He used to be Camden's best friend." Mrs. McCallum told the two. Shawn raised an eyebrow,

"Used to be?"

"Yeah, they were so close, but a few months ago they just stopped. Just like that."

Huh.

It was around then that Shawn's stomach began to growl, but before he could bring it up, Gus starting having second thoughts about this whole "being detectives" thing. They ended up fighting about it, and Gus ended up walking away.

"Gus! You can't just quit on me," Shawn exclaimed, as Gus was leaving.

"Gus!" Gus didn't look back.

"Sorry Shawn, I can't condone you putting your well being, and quite possibly your life, as well as mine, on the line just to play detective."

"Fine! But I'll have you know I'm going to River's Diner, and you will miss out on their amazing pie!" Shawn threw back, and Gus' step faltered for a moment, but then he kept going.

Shawn was still pretty frustrated with Gus by the time he reached the diner. How could he just throw away this opportunity? Shawn took a deep breath as he walked inside. It smelled like pie, chicken, and cigarette smoke, and just good memories. Well, maybe the smoke wasn't all that pleasant, but the rest was great.

Shawn remembered that when he and his father actually got along, many years ago, they would eat there at least one a week. That was before his parents split up, which was also when he and his father began fighting.

Although Gus, and pretty much everyone else Shawn knew, often saw him as a rebel who just messes around all the time, he did have feelings. He just kept them hidden, that's all.

He sat down at one of the small tables in the back, and ordered a slice of berry pie.

He had barely taken two bites when he felt his vision begin to cloud up, making it very hard to see.

The diner was quite full, so he stood up, and attempted to get to the door, so he could go through the vision outside, and not draw unwanted attention toward himself.

Shawn had barely stumbled out the door and to the side of the diner to be more inconspicuous, when it started. He started shaking and twitching.  
>He lost his balance, and slid down into a half sitting, half falling over position. The worst part about his visions was the splitting headaches that came with them.<p>

He pressed his hands into his skull, as if that would soften the pain. He knew by now that it never did, but it was a reflex, and he didn't bother to take his hands away.

Then his surroundings went black, and he was in the dark. It gradually lightened, but not by much. He held his eyes closed, trying to make the image clearer.

He was watching someone walk through the darkness, holding some sort of bag. It looked as if it were stuffed with rolls on money. The person dropped the bag somewhere. It was too dark for Shawn to see where though. All he could make out was the outline of a moderately large building, and that was it. The vision ended, and he could see where he actually was again.

The sudden brightness hurt Shawn's eyes, but he'd take it over a splitting headache any day.

It took him a moment to realize he had probably just witnessed some sort of ransom drop. Was it related to the McCallum kidnapping? Most likely.  
>Shawn picked himself off the ground, and brushed off his pants. He was a bit dizzy, but he walked it off, and re-entered the diner. He figured that since Gus technically had quit, he had no obligation to share new information with him.<p>

Shawn made his way back to his table, but paused when he got there. Someone was in his seat. She was blonde, with blue eyes, and probably the prettiest person Shawn had ever seen, like ever.

She didn't even notice him standing there, and was fully interested in the newspaper she had opened in front of her.

Shawn cleared his throat, and she finally looked up.

"Excuse me miss, but you're in my seat," Shawn said, flashing his charming smile, and being more polite than he normally would have been.

"Am I?" She asked, looking somewhat amused.

"Actually yes, you are."

"Are you one of those people who absolutely must have the same table every time you go somewhere?"

Shawn let out a tiny laugh,

"No, I was here ten minutes ago. I went outside to…um…do something.

"See," He said pointing to his pie, which had been moved over towards the other side of the table.  
>She smiled up at him, and Shawn was pretty sure he'd never seen a prettier smile. Not even in a mirror.<p>

"I'm sorry; I thought they just hadn't cleaned up yet. Do you want me to move?" She asked, folding the newspaper and placing it on the table.

"Not anymore," Shawn said, sitting down in the seat next to her.

"So, what's going on?"

"I don't have time to talk, I'm busy." She said, opening the newspaper back up.

"Doing what?" Shawn asked, realizing this might be what Gus meant when he said that Shawn sometimes can't take a hint.

She sighed, and looked over. She sounded annoyed, but didn't look it.

"I'm looking for work."

"What kind of work?" Shawn pried. She looked at Shawn again.

"Why do you care? I don't even know you."

"But you could." Shawn was relentless sometimes; Gus had mentioned it before, quite a few times. Shawn wasn't sure if it was a bad thing or not.  
>She said nothing. Silent treatment then?<p>

"Could I at least get a name?"Shawn asked. She looked up, seemingly contemplating it.

"Juliet."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Juliet." Shawn said, smiling slightly. He was about to say something else, but Juliet cut him off.

"Look, diner guy—"

"Shawn."

"Shawn, it was nice to talk to you, but I have to go talk to someone."

"About a job?" He asked, actually interested in what someone else had to say, for once.

Juliet gave him a small smile.

"Maybe…" She said, trailing off. Then she walked away.

Shawn sighed, watching her go. He felt stupid hoping he'd see her again, because he probably wouldn't. It wasn't like him to get hung up over one girl anyway. But there was something about her. Something he never felt about people he just met. It utterly baffled him.


End file.
